Companies in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector are leaders in energy efficiency and supportive of the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling frameworks, aiming to ensure that their products are designed, produced, used, and recycled in a sustainable and safe manner whilst providing increased benefits to customers and society at large.

By closely collaborating with policymakers and other stakeholders, we remain committed to contributing with our technical expertise to the ongoing Lot 5 discussions, provided that transparency becomes the guiding principle in the development of technical requirements.

The revision process for the Lot 5 regulations has been ongoing since 2012 and in some cases it lacked transparency, thorough analysis and proper impact assessment. In addition, the data provided by industry was not given due consideration in the setting of the on-mode power consumption requirements, and there is no line of sight in the technology roadmap to achieve the future energy efficiency gains proposed by the Commission. Notably, innovation and market demand are already driving impressive energy efficiency achievements and benefiting consumers in the absence of new regulatory measures.

We understand the Commission’s political ambition to integrate strict energy and resource efficiency aspects in ecodesign but we are concerned about some of the requirements put forward that either (1) are unmanageable (unrealistic energy efficiency limits), (2) lack proper impact assessment (e.g. inclusion of signage displays into the scope), or (3) provide no added value (extensive repair and end-of-life information requirements). In short, the current texts of the draft regulations limit market access, deviate from internationally recognized best practices and compromise intellectual property.

The signatories of this statement remain committed to work together with the European Commission, Member States and other relevant stakeholders. At this particular stage in the process, we count on the Member States, which will meet on 19 and 20 December, to make the necessary improvements to the Commission’s proposal to ensure that under the ecodesign requirements for electronic displays, EU consumers have access to the benefits of the most recent breakthroughs in picture quality improvement.